Broken as Things Are

"A sensitive Southern tale of weirdly imaginative children and hapless adults. Ms. Witt has staked out a territory somewhere between Harper Lee and Flannery O'Connor." -E. L. Doctorow From the day that Morgan Lee is born, her extraordinarily beautiful and withdrawn older brother, Ginx, is obsessed by her. As Aunt Lois recalls: "Ginx thought you belonged to him Morgan Lee. He would sit on our big couch right there in his sailor's suit and hold on to you for dear life . . . He didn't speak normal till he was five, then-bang-one day he's just talking away in complete sentences. But he wouldn't say, 'I.' He said 'we,' meaning you and him."Inhabiting their own parallel world, the two communicate through a secret language and make-believe stories; when Morgan Lee begins to explore friendships beyond their closed circle, however, Ginx becomes increasingly disturbed. In luminous prose, Martha Witt explores the intense and private world inhabited by these siblings and the inevitable and necessary pain of their separation.